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67th Congress,) HOUSE OF EEPRESBNTATIVES. ( Report 
1st Session. ) 1 No. 311. 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY A HOLIDAY IN THE DISTRICT OF 

COLUMBIA. 






July 29, 1921. — Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. 



Mr. Focht, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, submit ted 

the following 



S"3 



REPORT. 

[To accompany H. R. 2310.] 



The Committee on the District of Columbia, to which was referred 
the bill (H. R. 2310) to declare Lincoln's birthday a legal holi- 
day in the District of Columbia, having had the same under con- 
sideration, report the same back with the recommendation that it 
do pass. 

In support of the passage of the bill the following historical data 
was furnished the committee by Mr. E. W. Oyster. 

The effect of the passage of this measure would be the observance 
of Lincoln's birthday as a legal holiday in the District of Columbia 
in the same manner as is now provided for the observance of Wash- 
ington's birthday. 

The legislatures of 26 States have passed laws making Lincoln's 
birthday a legal holiday, as follows : 



California. 

Colorado. 

Connecticut. 

Delaware. 

Illinois. 

Indiana. 

Iowa. 

Kansas. 

Kentucky. 

Michigan. 

Minnesota. 

Missouri. 

Nebraska. 



Nevada. 
New Jersey. 
New York. 
North Dakota. 
New Mexico. 
Oregon. 
Pennsylvania. 
South Dakota. 
Utah. 

Washington. 
West Virginia. 
Wisconsin. 
Wyoming. 






A similar bill, unanimously reported from another committee 
during the second session of the Sixty-sixth Congress, passed the 
House by a large majority on March 17, 1920, but was not reported 
to the Senate from the committee to which it[had been referred in 
that body. 



2 LINCOLN S BIRTHDAY A HOLIDAY IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 

This bill has been unanimously indorsed by the Department of the 
Potomac, (irand Army of the Republic, on several occasions. 

The following resolution was unanimously passed on February 12, 
L921: 

Resolved, That the Department of the Potomac, Grand Army of the Republic, in 
mass meeting assembled in the Congregational Church, Washington, D. C, for the 

purposi sulogizing and honoring the name and principles of Abraham Lincoln, 

and believing that the time has come when his birthday should be declared a fegal 
holiday in fchl same manner as the great Washington's birthday has been made a legal 
holiday in the District of Columbia, respectfully but very earnestly petitions the 
< longress of the United States to enact a law declaring the birthday of Lincoln a legal 
holiday. 

There is no doubt in the minds of the majority of your committee 
that an immense majority of the American people who love him and 
indorse his principles would heartily approve the action of Congress 
in thus honoring the name of Abraham Lincoln. 

The people of this District have not the power to declare Lincoln's 
birthday a legal holiday. That authority under the Constitution 
rests alone in Congress. In view of the fact that his greatest work 
was done here, that his life was sacrificed here as a martyr to the 
principles of liberty and self-government, "A government of the 
people, by the people, and for the people," it seems both fitting and 
proper that his name and memory should be honored as Washing- 
ton's name and memory have been honored. 

As Washington is revered and honored as the Father of his Country, 
so is Abraham Lincoln enrolled as the greatest martyr to human 
liberty, who gave his life in support and defense of that Government. 
Together their names are blended in one immortal wreath — both 
among the names that were not born to die. 

The infamous crime of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin, caused 
genuine heartfelt sorrow throughout the civilized world, and many 
were the beautiful tributes of love and sympathy received by our 
Government from foreign Governments, municipalities, and private 
individuals, which were printed in a large volume, en titled "Tribute 
of the Nations to Abraham Lincoln." Several of these tributes have 
been selected and incorporated in this report, as follows: 

[From Appendix to Diplomatic Correspondence of 1865.) 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

By Hon. Salvador Camacho Roland. 

(Translated from La Opinion (Bogota) June 7, 1865.) 

The name with which we head these lines will be one of the most famous which 
this country, fruitful in great men and great events, will transmit to the admiration 
and love of posterity. Of the many great men whom war, diplomacy, and politics 
e raised upon the wings of human passions, none will enjoy a history, a fame, 
BO pure and imperishable as he who, controlling the turbulent waves of the most 
colossal <i\ il war of modern times, preserved order with liberty, and maintained the 
integritj of a greal Republic, while the bonds of its society were being broken into 
aii. in.- by the advenl of a new civilization. 

This will not bo because history will present him brandishing a flaming sword 

lain ononiios, disposing in despotic councils the fate of peoples, or 

erasing and changing the lines of territories, or putting his foot on the unchained 

libera] pint of hi,- age; bu1 because, as in all great revelations of truth to man, the 

divine spirit of a greal idea incarnated itself in an humble being and inspired him 

iIh- faith, the courage, and the perseverance to draw it safely from the agitated 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

"REIVED 

AUGI81921 

PS* C!?J!!?J£ NTSJ3 1 V i 3 1 o N 



Lincoln's birthday a holiday in district of Columbia. 3 

ocean, through breakers and in spite of hostile winds, to the port of safety and of 
triumph. 

******* 

When, in 1863, propositions of peace were talked of by the South, Mr. Lincoln 
did not hesitate to declare his willingness to submit the validity of the emancipation 

proclamation to the Supreme Court and the approval or disapproval of Congress. 
It was only after so much blood had been shed that it, cried to heaven for recompense, 
that he judged the only price of this was the irrevocable, complete, and absolute 
extermination of slavery, and on that ground alone he manifested a disposition not to 
yield. 

The last phase of his public character, and which most appeals to our lively sym- 
pathy, was his magnanimity. The formidable and groundless insurrection, which had 
threatened to destroy the unity and force of the country, subdued, his first and only 
purpose was to reorganize the conquered territories, returning them their existence 
and their own governments, without retaining for a moment longer than necessary 
and just the discretionary power with which the rebellion had armed him. He 
never thought from the first of humbling and punishing, or of showing that healthy 
energy which is always the inevi table source of armed reaction. The stupid assassin, 
more stupid than his murderous bullet, without doubt did not think that, amidst the 
dangerous fermentation of passions which follows a day of victory over brethren, the 
surest guaranty of restoration and liberty to the South was the noble life of Mr. Lincoln . 
In the vulgar sense of human language, Abraham Lincoln was certainly not a great 
man. He had not the dazzling prestige of victorious achievements in war; he was 
not a conqueror of peoples and countries; he never enveloped his plans in the gloomy 
obscurity of mystery or dissimulation; he never took to himself the credit of results 
which followed from the inscrutable decrees of Providence; he was free from that 
satanic pride which, in others, supplies the want of true greatness. But he possessed 
something greater than all these, which all the splendors of earthly greatness can not 
equal. He was the instrument of God. The Divine Spirit, which in another day of 
regeneration took the form of an humble artisan of Galilee, had again clothed itself 
in the flesh and bones of a man of lowly birth and degree. That man was Abraham 
Lincoln, the liberator and savior of the greatest Republic of modern times. That 
irresistible force, called an idea, seized upon an obscure and almost common man, 
burnt him with its holy fire, purified him in its crucible, and raised him to the apex 
of human greatness, even to being the redeemer of a whole race of men. 

He whose boyhood was passed at the plow handle in the then solitary prairies of 
Illinois, whose early manhood was dragged out in fatigue at the oar of a Mississippi 
River flatboat, and the only repose of whose maturer years was the noisy labors of 
the forum, that man was called to be the arbiter of the fate of his country — the great 
man of state, whose destiny it was to manage the rudder during the most frightful 
storm of the age. In the critical hour of trial and danger all rested on him. * * * 
There is in his last words something of the fire of the old prophets. "Fondly do we 
hope," he said in his inaugural address of the 4th of March last, "Fondly do we hope, 
fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may pass away. Yet if God 
wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's 250 years of unre- 
quited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash be paid 
by another drawn by the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said, 
"The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'" And that nothing 
should be wanting to complete the true grandeur of his life, the hand of crime 
snatched it from him in the midst of the triumph of his cause and bound his temples, 
already pale from the vigils and anguish of four years, with the resplendent crown of 
the martyr. 

Abraham Lincoln is dead, but his work is finished and sealed forever with the 
veneration which God has given to the blood of martyrs. He who was yesterday a 
man is to-day an apostle; he who was the center at which the shots of malice and 
hatred was aimed is now consecrated by the sacrament of death ; he who was yesterday 
a power is to-day a prestige, sacred, irresistible. His voice is louder and more potent 
from the mansion of martyrs than from the Capitol, and the cry which was boldly 
raised among the living is mute before the majesty of the tomb. 

Abraham Lincoln passes to the side of Washington — the one the father, the other 
the savior of a great Nation. 

******* 

This great work has cost a great price. Humanity will have to mourn yet for many 
years to come the horrors of that Civil War; but above the blood of its victims, above 
the bones of its dead, above the ashes of desolate hearths, will arise the greal figure 
of Abraham Lincoln as the most acceptable sacrifice offered l>y the nineteenth cen- 



4 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY A HOLIDAY IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 

tury in expiation of the great crime of the sixteenth. Above all the anguish and 
tears of that immense hecatomb will appear the shade of Abraham Lincoln as the 
symbol of hope and pardon. 



(Mr. Motely to Mr. Seward.) 

Legation of the United States, 

Vienna, April SO, 1865. 
Sir: The news of the great tragedy which has brought desolation upon our country, 
in the very moment of our highest joy, reached this place on the 26th. This is the 
first post which leaves Vienna since the receipt of the intelligence. 

I shall not even attempt to picture the consternation which the event has caused 
throughout the civilized world, nor to describe the anguish which it has excited in 
my own heart, as in that of every loyal American, whether at home or abroad. 
******* 

I do not fear to express the opinion that the name of Abraham Lincoln will be 
cherished, as long as we have a history, as one of the wisest, purest, and noblest 
magistrates, as one of the greatest benefactors to the human race, that have ever lived. 

I believe that the foundation of his whole character was a devotion to duty. To 
borrow a phrase from his eloquent inaugural address of this year, it was his "firmness 
in the right, as God gave him to see the right," which enabled him to discharge the 
function of his great office, in one of the most terrible epochs of the world's history, 
with such rare sagacity, patience, cheerfulness, and courage. And God, indeed, gave 
him to see the right, and he needs no nobler epitaph than those simple words from his 
own lips. 

So much firmness with such gentleness of heart, so much logical acuteness with such 
almost childlike simplicity and ingenuousness of nature, so much candor to weigh the 
wisdom of others, with so much tenacity to retain his own judgment were rarely before 
united in one individual. 

Never was there such vast political power placed in purer hands; never did a heart 
remain more humble and more unsophisticated after the highest prizes of earthly 
ambition had been obtained. 

Certainly "Government of the people, by the people, for the people" — to quote 
again his own words — shall never perish from the earth so long as the American people 
can embody itself in a character so worthy to represent the best qualities of humanity — 
its courage, generosity, patience, sagacity, and integrity — as these have been per- 
sonified in him who has been one of the best of rulers and is now one of the noblest of 
martyrs. * * * 

I have followed his career and every public act and utterance with an ever-increas- 
ing veneration for a character and intellect which seemed to expand and to grow more 
vigorous the greater the demand that was made upon their strength. 

And this feeling, I believe, is shared not only by all Americans worthy of the name, 
but by all inhabitants of foreign lands who have given themselves the trouble to study 
our history in this most eventful period. * * * 

The whole diplomatic corps, with scarcely an exception, have called upon me as 
representative of the United States, and their warm and sincere expressions of sym- 
pathy at our national loss, of cordial good will for the Union, and, more important 
than all, of decided respect and admiration for the character of our lamented President, 
have been most grateful to my heart. 

The journals of Vienna have vied with each other in eloquent tributes to the virtues 
of Mr. Lincoln, in expressions of unaffected sympathy for the great cause of which 
he was the impersonation, and of horror at the accursed crime by which one of the 
best men has been taken from the world. 

On June 3, 1903, at Freepori, 111., on the site of the Lincoln-Douglas 
debate in 1858, where a monument commemorating the event was 
being unveiled, President Roosevelt, in praise of Lincoln, said: 

We meet to-day to commemorate the spot on which occurred one of those memorable 
scenes in accordance with which the whole future history of nations is molded. 

Here were spoken the winged words that flew through immediate time and that will 
fly through that portion of eternity recorded in the history of our race. 

Here was sounded the keynote of the struggle which, after convulsing the Nation, 
made it in fact what it had only been in name, at once united and free. 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY A HOLIDAY IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 5 

It is eminently fitting that this monument, given hy the women of this city in 
commemoration of the great debate that here took place, should be dedicated by the 
men whose deeds made good the words of Abraham Lincoln and the soldiers of the 
Civil War. [Cheers and applause.] 

DEEDS FOLLOWED WORDS. 

The word was mighty, but had it not been for the word the deeds could not have 
taken place. But without the deed?, the words would have been the idlest breath. 

It is forever to the honor of our Nation that brought forth the statesman who, with 
far-sighted vision, could pierce the clouds that obscured the sight of the keenest of 
his fellows and could see what the future inevitably held. 

And, moreover, that we had back of the statesman and behind him the men to whom 
it was given to fight in the greatest war ever waged for the good of mankind, for the 
betterment of the world. 

I have literally but a moment here. I could not resist the chance that was offered 
me to stop and dedicate this monument, for great though we now regard Abraham Lin- 
coln, my countrymen, the future will put him on an even higher pinnacle than we have 
put him. [Applause.] 

HIS ORATORY ENDURING. 

In all history I do not believe that there is to be found an orator whose speeches will 
last as enduringly as certain of the speeches of Lincoln. 

And in all history, with the sole exception of the man who founded the Republic, I 
do not think there will be found another statesman at once so great and so single- 
hearted in his devotion to the ^eal of his people. 

We can not too highly honor him. 

And the highest way in which we can honor him is to see that our homage is not only 
homage of words; that to loyalty of words we join loyalty of the heart, and that we pay 
honor to the memory of Abraham Lincoln by so. conducting ourselves, by so carrying 
ourselves as citizens of this Republic, that we shall hand on undiminished to our chil- 
dren and our children's children the heritage we received from the men who upheld the 
statesmanship of Lincoln in the council and who made good the soldiership of Grant in 
the field. [Cheers and applause.] 

Lincoln greatly admired Washington. On February 22, 1842, just 
after he had passed his thirty-third birthday, he delivered a lengthy 
address on temperance before the Springfield (111.) temperance 
society, at the close of which he delivered the following eloquent 
eulogy of him who was " First in war, first in peace, and first in the 
hearts of his countrymen." 

This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of Washington. We 
are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the mightiest name of earth — long since 
mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On that 
name no eulogy is expected. It can not be. To add brightness to the sun or glory 
to the name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe 
pronounce the name, and in its naked, deathless splendor leave it shining on. 

In the same address on the temperance question he said: 

Although the temperance cause has been in progress for nearly 20 years, it is apparent 
to all that it is just now being crowned with a degree of success hitherto unparalleled. 
The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions of fifties, of hundreds, and of 
thousands. The cause itself seems suddenly transformed from a cold, abstract theory 
to a living, breathing, active and powerful chieftain, going forth "conquering and to 
conquer. " The citadels of his great adversary are daily being stormed and dismantled ; 
his temple and his altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long been per- 
formed and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be made, are daily dese- 
crated and deserted. The triumph of the conqueror's fame is sounding from hill to 
hill, from sea to sea, from land to land, and calling millions to his standard at a blast. 
For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. * * * 

Of our political revolution we are all justly proud. It has given us a degree of 
political freedom far exceeding that of any other nation of the earth. In it the world 
has found a solution of the long-mooted problem as to the capacity of man to govern 
himself. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and still is togrow and expand into 
the universal liberty of mankind. * * * 



6 Lincoln's biethday a holiday in district of Columbia. 

Turn now to the temperance resolution. In it we shall find a stronger bondage 
broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed; in it more of want 
supplied, tnore diseases healed, mure sorrow assauged. By it no orphans starving, 
HO widows weeping. By it none wounded in feeling, none injured in interest; even 
the rum maker and the rum seller will have glided into other occupations so gradually 
as to never have fell the change, and will stand ready to join all others in the universal 
song of gladness. And what a noble ally this to the cause of political freedom. With 
such an aid its march can not fail to be on and on, till every son of earth shall drink 
in the rich fruition, the sorrow-quenching dra'ughts of perfect liberty. Happy day 
When — all appetites controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter subjected — mind, all 
Conquering mind, shall live and move, the monarch of the world. Hail fall of fury! 
Reign of reason, all hail! 

And when the victory shall be complete — when there shall be neither a slave nor 
a drunkard on the earth — how proud the title of that land which may truly claim 
to be the birthplace and the cradle of both those revolutions that shall have ended 
in that victory. How nobly distinguished that people who shall have planted and 
nurtured to maturity both the political and moral freedom of their species. 

The majority of your committee, believing that Washington and 
Lincoln are America's most illustrious citizens and statesmen, alike 
worthy and deserving of the highest honors of their country, which 
they served so well, and believing that both should be honored alike 
in the matter of a legal holiday bearing their respective names, 
earnestly recommend that the House again pass, if not unanimously, at 
least by a large majority, the bill (H.R.2310} to declare Lincoln's birth- 
day a legal holiday in the District of Columbia. 

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